Hmm.
It's so sad that most people don't understand the concept of grace even though they have good intentions.
We have been saved by grace and we were already loved WHILE we were still sinners. But we think we have to then please God out of our own efforts by keeping by the law of Moses in the ways of the Old Testament. And so we think that failure to keep the law 100% must result in some kind of punishment - and if God doesn't 'punish' us with sickness or whatever else, then we must punish ourselves in order to be worthy again? What a self-righteous mentality we have been taught.
It is very simple: The law brings death. The Spirit (through faith brings life). Which one have we been preaching?
We think that God dislikes sinners. No, he died for sinners. He dislikes self-righteousness.
The law is there to make people guilty so that they will not be self-righteous, NOT to make people righteous. The following are scriptures from only three books. How many are the scriptures and how did we miss this:
Rom 3:19-20
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world MAY BECOME GUILTY before God. Therefore BY THE DEEDS OF THE LAW no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom 4:15
Because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.
Rom 5:1
Therefore, having been justified BY FAITH, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that WHILE we WERE still sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:10
For if when we WERE ENEMIES we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Rom 5:13
For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Note: Sin is not imputed to you when you are in Christ.
Rom 5:19
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by ONE Man's obedience many will be MADE righteous.
Note: By HIS obedience, you ARE righteous.
Rom 5:20
The law entered, SO THAT SIN MIGHT INCREASE. But where sin increased, grace increased EVEN MORE.
Note: That's why the law entered - to increase the offense! Not so that we would try and live by the law.
Romans 10:4
For Christ is the END of the law, for righteousness to every one that believes.
Rom 11:6
And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
Note: Are you in law or in grace?
2 Cor 3:6
He has made us competent as ministers of a NEW covenant - not of the letter (of the legal written code) but of the Spirit; for the letter KILLS, but the Spirit gives LIFE.
2 Cor 3:7-9
Now if the ministry that brought DEATH, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was, will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious? If the ministry that CONDEMNS men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that BRINGS righteousness!
Note: The law is the ministry of death that condemns men! Get off it now!
2 Cor 3:14
But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ.
Note: No wonder people don't SEE, because we preach the 10 commandments?
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Note: We were born into sin, but reborn into righteousness. Because we have become one spirit with the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin TO BE SIN for us, so that in him we might BECOME the righteousness of God.
Gal 3:12
The law is NOT based on faith.
Note: And only faith pleases God (Heb 11:6).
Gal 3:23-25
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, LOCKED UP until FAITH should be revealed. So the law was put in charge IN ORDER TO lead us to Christ that we might be JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. Now that faith has come, we are NO LONGER under the supervision of the law.
Gal 5:4
You who are trying to be justified by law have been ALIENATED from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
Note: And here I was thinking that sinning after you accept Jesus is falling from grace. Disgusting!
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Please email me with questions or comments. I really also recommend the following outstanding audio teaching so that we can understand that our spirits are holy even though we still 'transgress':
Spirit, Soul and Body by Andrew Wommack:
http://www.awmi.net/extra/
Some good grace preachers:
Rob Rufus
Joseph Prince
Andrew Wommack
UPDATE (Sept 4th 21:44 GMT):
A friend pointed something out to me so I think it is important to add this:
Remember that the scriptures do not say that the Old Testament should be completely done away with. But we now live by a new covenant and it's extremely important to know that there are major differences between the two covenants. More on that soon!
Matthew 5:17-18 says that: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
Many people are confused by this verse thinking that it means that we are still to live by the law.
In his great Bible Commentary, B.W. Johnson summed up Matthew 5:17-18 in the following way:
17. Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets. The preceding verses were so opposed to the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees that some might assert that he was a destroyer of the law. He replies that he has not come to destroy it, but to fulfill. He does not say that he has come to perpetuate it. To fulfill. To complete its purpose. He was the end of the law. It was a "schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" (Gal. 3:24), but "after faith is come we are no longer under the schoolmaster."
The Law and the Prophets (or the OT) is still part of the bible and divinely inspired scripture and there are still so much we can learn from it. I love reading the OT - God speaks through it. But Jesus fulfilled it and it is now a shadow of the NT which we now live by.
